Category: News

Nurses who are planning to write NCLEX Exam in the Philippines must be fully vaccinated before they can be allowed to enter the country. The second dose of the vaccine must have been taken at least 14 days before your arrival with the day the vaccine was given counted as Day 0.

Below are the entry requirements for Philippines:

The Philippines’ Government Resolution 160B and 164A explain the detailed entry rules in response to COVID-19 for people travelling to the Philippines.

If you’re fully vaccinated

If you are fully vaccinated, you can enter the Philippines provided you:

• have acceptable proof of vaccination;
• present either a negative RT-PCR test taken within forty-eight (48) hours prior to the date and time of departure from the country of origin/first port of embarkation in a continuous travel to the Philippines; or a negative laboratory based Antigen Test taken within twenty-four (24) hours.
• have valid tickets for your return journey to the port of origin or next port of destination not later than thirty (30) days from the date of your arrival in the Philippines;
• your passport is valid for at least 6 months; and
• obtain, prior to arrival, a travel insurance for COVID-19 treatment costs from reputed insurers, with a minimum coverage of USD 35,000 for the duration of your stay in the Philippines
• have registered for a Bureau of Quarantine One Health Pass prior to your arrival. You will receive a unique QR code which you will need to present to your airline prior to boarding and on arrival at your airport in the Philippines

The requirement to hold a return onward ticket is waived if you are a spouse and/or child of a Filipino citizen or a former Filipino citizen with balikbayan privileges.

You are considered fully vaccinated if you received the second dose in a 2-dose series or a single dose vaccine more than fourteen (14) days prior to the date and time of departure from your country of origin. Your vaccine must either appear on the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) List or Compassionate Special Permit (CSP) issued by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration or have received Emergency Use Listing by the World Health Organization.

Once you arrive in the Philippines you are no longer required to observe facility based quarantine but must self-monitor for any COVID-19 symptoms for 7 days from your arrival. You are required to report to the local government unit (LGU) of your destination if you develop any symptoms.

Proof of vaccination status

The Philippines will accept Nigeria’s proof of vaccine record. Your final vaccine dose must have been administered at least 14 days prior to travel

Acceptable proof of vaccination are:

• world Health Organization International Certificate of Vaccination and Prophylaxis;
• VaxCertPH certification if you were vaccinated in the Philippines;
• the national or state digital certificate of a country which has accepted VaxCertPH under a reciprocal arrangement if you were vaccinated elsewhere overseas;

If you are arriving in the Philippines using the visa free entry scheme you will be denied entry into the country and will be subject to exclusion proceedings if you do not meet all of the entry requirements.

If you are arriving in the Philippines with another type of visa and are fully vaccinated, but are unable to provide acceptable proof of vaccination, you will be required to undergo facility-based quarantine until the release of a negative RT-PCR test taken on the 5th day. You will then be required to undergo home quarantine until the 14th day after your arrival.

Management of the Cross River State School of Nursing and Midwifery, Itigidi, in Abi Local Government has reportedly expelled a female student, Gracious Paradise, who was allegedly captured in leaked sex tapes.

Nigerian journalist, Agba Jalingo, who disclosed this said Gracious is the daughter of Pastor John Paradise, of the Banner of Grace Church, Ketabebe in Ugep, Yakurr Local Government Area.

According to CrossRiverWatch, three sexually explicit videos of Gracious recently surfaced online.

In one, she films the man in a position that suggests he was thrusting his manhood into her vagina.

In the second video, she films her nude self from her waist up.

In the third video, only a part of her face is shown as the video clip starts from a manhood inside a vagina, then pans to her breasts and face.

The aforementioned publication also reported that a family source who did not want to be named, said the alleged sex videos of the pastor’s daughter who is reportedly a final year student of the institution made the school authority to send her parking.

But, a member of the Governing Board of the institution said the Board is not aware of the development.

“I called to find out but the details are sketchy. But, we are to meet tomorrow, maybe it will be tabled there,” the board member said after asking if the lady was wearing the school’s uniform while carrying out the act.

I just want to quickly draw our attention to something quite important.

I’ve noticed a consistent trend of nursing pages, individuals quick to share and spread news that are not in good light to us. It’s okay if these news are shared in a closed space or page but taking it to personal Facebook page, public instagram pages, public twitter accounts etc is doing no good to us.

A bad news that we all are not proud of (true or not) , we are thanking God Linda Ikeji or punch newspaper as usual is not carrying it but you realise nurses themselves look for the mega phones and loudspeakers to announce this to all who care to listen.

Even if we feel it’s necessary to share such news in the public space , it should be what was done by the union or body, actions taking to mitigate or correct or the disciplinary measures employed.

Sharing these terrible news about nursing on our social media pages (groups/individuals) does no good to us in all ramifications.

Nurse killed

Nurse raped

Nurse this, nurse that….and we know bad news naturally spread like wildfire.

Improving the public image is the goal, don’t add to it. Don’t help them cement the wrong notion about us.

There is no profession on earth that do not have the black sheeps, so it’s normal for some nurses to err and fall short of their responsibilities.

If we need content for our pages, especially the ones in the public spaces, let’s make it void of all these terrible news. If we must share , let’s endeavour to share the actions taken.

I hope we understand the angle I am coming from and I hope no one gets offended with this.

Thank you all.

Catherine ❤️

I am still wondering if we should continue like that. The Federal Government is known to be establishing Tertiary Health Care Institutions for training and research of healthcare workers/students alongside formulating the National Health Policy in which the “One Year Nursing Internship Program” Is fully part of it as approved by the Federal Government in September 2016, for subsequent implementation by all Federal Institution in Nigeria and be adopted by State Government too. This is in line with the requirements of becoming a professional Nurse for the benefit of humanity and the country’s health which is wise of the Government through the National Council of Establishment and Federal Ministry of Health.

It’s quite unfortunate that some teaching hospitals and Federal Medical Centers are yet to implement this for the reason best known to them. What pains me, is that of UMTH, as one of the best training institutions in the northeast, it’s disheartening to exclude Nursing internships despite having or under the same institution with a department training BNSc. Nursing at the University of Maiduguri.

Fully known that UMTH is a Federal Institutions, the graduate Nurses from the region and beyond applied for Nursing in the said institutions almost 6 months ago upon approval by the NMCN almost a year ago but still were not considered as other sister professions who were considered some months back.

The said institution recently recruited Nurses as Locum staff which is applaudable but why not employ those graduates for their internship alongside the massive recruitment of Nurses as Locum staff in a balanced ratio, my take though. This worries me because I am yet to figure out why it’s happening this way; Nurses are professionals through which health gaps can be filled and with which achieving SDG will be possible, have them fully trained is a pathway to preparedness for achieving what is expected of a better health outcome, so, therefore, I implore the CMD, CMAC, DNS, NANNM of the said Unit and the entire Nurses of the Hospital alongside supporters of the better healthcare system to please come to the aid of graduate Nurses in Borno State. Thank You.

Nr. Reuben Zirahgi Markus

I just learnt that efforts are already on top gear to actualize this.

The management of the hospital has ensured full accreditation of the hospital for internship for BNSc holders. Certificate of accreditation for internship has even been collected! It only remain little administrative process to kick start the programme. I even learnt that interested persons have been asked to apply, so that there won’t be delay in starting of the internship immediately the little process to accomplish is through.

I got the assurance that, at the present level of the management preparation, the internship will begin very soon, most likely in few months time….can’t even reach the end of this year!

To this end, I will personally appeal to the executive and members of NUNSA to show understanding in the little delay in the commencement of the internship at UMTH and know that programme of such nature, which involves continuous expenditure in terms of allowance to the interns, required securing all forms of approvals. Therefore, I advise that the leadership of NUNSA should rather show appreciation to the CMD, DNS and others for the huge sacrifice they have gone through to make the University of maiduguri teaching hospital begins the internship. You then wait patiently for the commencement of the programme in due course.

Thank you all and God bless.

Prof Adelani Tijani

According to a post circulating on social media, a Nurse from Nigeria has allegedly been deported for presenting a fraudulent IELTS result. Below is the post in circulation:

A nurse (identity withheld) has been deported back to Nigeria for processing her NMC UK application with a IELTS result gotten fraudulently. The Nurse was said to have resumed work in UK in February,2022 after following due process of the NMC UK application and presented an IELTS result of 8.5 overall band.

She was observed to have a poor command of English which stirred up question among coworkers and patients

She was invited for questioning by the management team, the meeting with her further confirmed the allegations against her, as she could barely express herself correctly in English.

Not only was her employment canceled, she was banned from NMC UK register and thereafter deported back to Nigeria.

This should serve as a warning to desperate Nurses who want to leave Nigeria at all cost. If you must leave, please leave legitimately, work on your English and write you IELTS yourself. Don’t present an IELTS results of 8.5 when you can’t even speak a band 5 English.
Imagine all the stress this lady has gone through, only to be deported and banned by NMC UK.

I wish you the best.

The Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) has announced that Professor Prisca Olabisi Adejumo, PhD, RN, RM, FP, BSN, MSN, FWACN, IIWCC� of the Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (CoMUI), will join 32 other world-renowned nurse researchers to be inducted into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. This event will take place at the 33rd International Nursing Research Congress in Scotland in the month of July 2022. This will be the 13th presentation of inductees who will join 238 distinguished nurses who were previously inducted.

Read the full release at this link:https://www.sigmanursing.org/…/sigma-nursing-announces…

Professor Adejumo obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Science in Medical Surgical Nursing in 1996 and 1999 respectively from the University of Ibadan. She then obtained a Masters in Medical Sociology in 2000 and went on to complete a doctoral in Medical Sociology and Genetics in 2011 also at the University of Ibadan. She had periods of training in the College of Nursing, University of Iowa and the University of Chicago and went on to obtain another doctoral in Nursing in 2016 from the University of Ibadan. Professor Adejumo is both a Nurse Practitioner and Medical Sociologist with expertise in ethnographic and survey research, psychosocial determinants of human behaviour in health, health communication and behaviour modification. Her research interests focus on health and professional education, cancer genetics, genetic counselling and risk factors for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

She has led several research and training projects with local and international partnerships and published over a hundred peer review articles. She is the immediate past Head of Nursing and her tenure was marked with much transformation and impact. She is also a member of the competencies committee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health.

Some of her on-going research work includes the African Association for Health Professions Education and Research/The African Forum for Research and Education for Health (AFREhealth), “Implementation Science of Genetics of stroke within the SIBS Genomics Study (SIBS-Gen-Gen), Establishing West African Oncogenetics Network” and Gynecological Cancers Genetic Risk Assessment for Cancer Prevention and Treatment (GRASP-T Study).

Some of her published work can be found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=adejumo+prisca.

Prisca is happily married to Professor Adebayo Adejumo, BSc Nursing; MSc Clinical Psy; PhD Dev. Psy (Ibadan); MHSc Bioethics (Univ of Toronto, Canada), a Professor of Health Psychology and Research Ethics at the University of Ibadan and they are blessed with wonderful children and grandchildren.

On behalf of the entire College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (CoMUI) community, I congratulate Professor Prisca Olabisi Adejumo and thank her for showcasing CoMUI to the global world of nursing. We wish her more laurels and accolades in the years to come.

Olayinka Omigbodun, FAS, FNAMed, FAMedSProfessor of Psychiatry and Provost

As a Nurse, one thing that upsets me at work is losing a pen.Sounds funny right?

How these pens get missing I can not explain. Sometimes when you search for it, you’ll find it, at times you don’t. Sometimes, you’ll find it days after.I’ve called my colleague at some point to ask them if they saw my Pen or they mistakenly picked it.

I got similar calls too.So it’s not a big deal.Funny enough, on some days, I got home to realise I ended the shift with more pens. I return them to the Nurses table, especially if I don’t know the owner.There are days when I found my lost pen on a patient’s table, laundry room, under a book where I kept it but I had forgotten.

Some of my colleagues go as far as writing their names on paper and sticking them into the pen case or they write their names on a small cut out plaster and wrap it around the pen.I don’t remember seeing any Nurse who keeps her pen safely under her hair

A lost pen can slow down your work, especially when you need to document important findings.It gets more frustrating when your colleagues are busy with theirs and no one has an extra pen.Sometimes, you may not be able to leave your unit to go get a pen, so you’ll just have to wait for your colleagues to finish documenting. On some days you’ll lose more than a pen during a shift.

Yes, pens are quite cheap, but a lost pen can frustrate your day. Buying pens every day can be very annoying.

Naija Nurses,Can you relate?What are your pen woes? How do you safeguard your pens at work?

It’s the start of a new week, do well to get loads of them

Happy New week!Happy Easter Celebration! Have a great day ahead

The target audience of mainstream media, and to a large extent social media is the general public. The language and diction used in communication are deliberately selected to make the content intelligible to both lay and specialised audiences.

On the other hand, scientific journals are specially curated for the scientific community. The language used and the jargon employed are targeted at the scientists.

However, the central themes of academic conversations ongoing in scientific journals are about the general public, and ultimately for the benefit of the public. In fact, the pieces of information around which scientific conversations revolve are obtained from the general public – ordinary persons who enrol in research as research participants.

Yet scientific conversations are not designed for the consumption of the public. Even though the approach to communication used in science inherently precludes the lay public, academic conversations in scientific journals are relevant for public policy decisions and deliberations.

How can articles in scientific journals perform the all-important objective of influencing public discourse when only a few groups of people can participate? It is at the backdrop of this question that this article sets its aim, to attempt to briefly review and discuss for the non-science community a recent publication in one Ghanaian scientific journal, Postgraduate Medical Journal of Ghana.

The publication revealed some relevant pieces of information about depression amongst some health workers in Ghana. I will unpack some recommendations, and then hope that this exercise helps brings this scientific discourse into the public domain. 

Research conducted by Dr. Emmanuel Dziwornu with his Ghanaian and German research collaborators, on depression amongst 127 Ghanaian health workers revealed that 37%, 20% and 7% of the research participants had moderate, moderate-to-severe, and severe levels of depression respectively.¹

These make a total of 64% of the participants. In other words, about 6 out of 10 health workers involved in the study had various levels of depression. This finding is worrying, and importantly it is relevant to Ghana’s policy decision-making. It is also a significant addition to the limited information about depression amongst health workers in Ghana.

In addition to throwing more light on depression in Ghanaian society, the study also reveals a worrying public health and mental health crisis amongst healthcare workers.

According to the researchers, depression is a significant cause of disability, and reduced productivity. The outcome of the research reminds the public and policymakers that healthcare workers may also be in need of care, as the neglect of their well-being affects work output, healthcare delivery, and ultimately patient satisfaction.

The researchers aptly posited in their journal article, Depression Amongst Health Workers: A Study at the Ho Teaching Hospital in Ghana, published in the March 2022 edition of the Postgraduate Medical Journal of Ghana that,

“Healthcare workers such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians have healthcare opportunities at their disposal. Comparatively, they are expected to have easier access to healthcare than non-healthcare workers.

“However, this opportunity does not always amount to utility (perhaps it does for physical health), especially with regards to mental health among health workers. The mental health of healthcare providers/workers is crucial as this translates into how they render their services to patients.”¹

To have a snapshot of the current extent of depression amongst health workers, a cross-sectional study design was used by the researchers to conduct this study. The use of a cross-sectional study design can be crudely compared to a movie critic who interprets a movie from a single scene.

The challenge associated with this approach is that the critic may miss previous scenes, leading to inadequate appreciation of the movie. In research, the use of a cross-sectional study design is associated with similar challenges faced by movie critics who critique movies from a single scene.

Because of these challenges, researchers who use cross-sectional study design encounter difficulties in proving causality and risk association between past (or ongoing) events and the disease or disorder under study. Nevertheless, the prevalence of diseases and disorders amongst a group of people can be evaluated with a cross-sectional study design.

Researchers who would want to use a cross-sectional study design to reveal a relationship between past events/factors and diseases/disorders may ask questions about past events, or they may choose an entirely different study design that is fit for purpose.²

In this research, the researchers assessed important sociodemographic factors like sex, marital status, age, and the kind` of health professionals of the research participants, to understand depression amongst the study population.

They also used Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9);¹ a diagnostic tool that has been shown by other research works to be an effective tool for diagnosing depression.³ This approach used by the researchers was good because it has been shown that these kinds of diagnostic tools fare better than merely an unaided interrogation in the consulting room.³

Because of the nature of the study design used, the method used in selecting research participants (convenience sampling), and the small number of research participants; it was difficult to generalise the research findings to the larger population of health workers in Ghana. It was also difficult to adequately prove the risk factors associated with the development of depression amongst health workers in the study population.

The impact of sociodemographic characteristics like sex, marital status, age, and job category on depression amongst the health workers was revealing; though in statistical sense, most of them did not show significant association with depression. For example, the study showed that more women had various degrees of depression as compared to men. The research revealed that for every 8 females with severe depression, 1 male experienced severe depression.

This finding deserves to be given close attention in future research because its interpretation in this particular research was affected by the fact that 70.1% of the research participants were females. 

Also, single/divorced/separated health workers experienced depression and depressive symptoms as compared to married health workers. This finding needs to be unpacked as in the context of public health and mental health, an unmarried health worker is different from a divorced health worker and a health worker who is separated from the partner. In the context of job category, nurses were more likely to experience depression as compared to other health workers.

This finding is worrying and deserves to be given close attention for possible intervention because nurses are the largest number of health workers in the Ghanaian healthcare system, and they are the professionals who spend a lot of time with the patient as compared to other healthcare professionals like medical doctors, pharmacist, medical laboratory scientists, and others.

In conclusion, the research conducted by Dr. Dziwornu and his collaborators has brought to the fore a very worrying public health concern amongst health workers in Ghana that needs to be looked at critically and investigated to help improve the wellbeing of health workers; and ultimately improve patient satisfaction and health care delivery.

There is a need to also find out what may be accounting for the gender disparity in the pattern of distribution of depression amongst health workers. There is also a need to determine the underlying risk factors of depression amongst health workers in Ghana.

Amongst others, it could be due to poor working conditions, poor remuneration, unfulfilling career progression, bullying at the workplace,⁴ or emotional exhaustion from handling both biomedical challenges and ethical dilemmas in clinical practice.⁵

The concluding remarks of Dr. Dziwornu and his collaborators cannot be truer. They said, “Mental health needs more attention in Ghana. No population in Ghana and every other country is immune to mental health challenges. Several factors form the basis for the development of mental health challenges. Though these factors explored in this study did not give significant and distinguishable outcomes, there are still many others that require scientific exploration.”¹

Further Reading

1.     Dziwornu E, Dordoye E, Hohl JE, Oboh L, Addae AK. Depression Among Health Workers: A Study at the Ho Teaching Hospital in Ghana. Postgraduate Medical Journal of Ghana. 2022;11(1).

2.     Thelle DS, Laake P. Epidemiology: Concepts and Methods. In: Laake P, Benestad HB, Olsen BR, eds. Research Methodology in the Medical and Biological Sciences. Elsevier; 2007:256-261.

3.     Pettersson A, Boström KB, Gustavsson P, Ekselius L. Which instruments to support diagnosis of depression have sufficient accuracy? A systematic review. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. 2015;69(7):497-508. doi:10.3109/08039488.2015.1008568

4.     Carlasare LE, Hickson GB. Whose Responsibility Is It to Stop Bullying? American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. 2021;23(12):E931-936. doi:10.1177/2372732215624218

5.     Ahenkan A, Afari MB, Buabeng T. Ethical Dilemma of health professionals in Ghana: experiences of doctors and nurses at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. African Journal of Management Research. 2018;25:28-44. Accessed April 10, 2022. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajmr/article/view/176337

*****

Anthony Gyening-Yeboah, MD is a Medical Doctor and Science Writer.

As a Black registered nurse, Layo George has worked ambitiously to tackle the systemic issue that has single-handedly created a disparity in the healthcare experiences of Black mothers compared to white mothers.

She created an app to not only help women thrive in the joy of pregnancy but to drive better maternal outcomes for both the mothers and their babies.

Based and trained in the DC area, George noticed the stark differences in treatment and care between Black mothers and their white counterparts. The inequalities she witnessed led her to dive deeper into the nationwide maternal health crisis facing Black women, per Johnson & Johnson.

George most importantly wanted to ensure that her experience giving birth was to be a safe and peaceful experience. She didn’t want to become a statistic for the significantly higher rate of maternal mortality and infant mortality faced by Black women.

“I was able to find the OB that I wanted who was OK with the kind of things that I wanted,” she told Essence.

“I would go to prenatal yoga on Thursdays. I just really created my journey, because I wanted it to be special. I found the doula that I wanted. I created a package for myself.”

Now the mother of a healthy 4-year-old, George realized that her special birthing experience isn’t always the reality for other Black mothers. She became determined to create a space that would enable mothers to take charge of their journey without accepting poor care and discrimination in the healthcare system.

“That’s how I ended up with Wolomi, and really wanting to bring the joy back in our birthing experience,” she said. “Wolomi is from a Yoruba word, from Nigeria. When you greet a mom, it’s an older Yoruba word, meaning ‘happy dipping hands in water.’ It’s the community aspect of things. Just the idea that this thing, the birthing process, our birth journey is a happy thing. Unfortunately, it’s turning into this scary thing.”

Wolomi, which began as a nonprofit organization, is a digital community of women of color that offers clinical support in the form of online courses, virtual group coaching, and one-on-one tutorials for women of color during pre-pregnancy planning, pregnancy, and postpartum. These are all led by a registered nurse.

The Wolomi: Pregnancy Companion App is a free platform that provides members with access to maternal health experts, midwives, pediatricians; events such as mental health screenings; and more.

“This is a joyful moment. You can have joy with the right information. Now, birthing in itself can be unpredictable, but you can own it,” she said.

“A lot of times, we get pregnant and the healthcare system just takes over. And then when we have the baby, it’s like, ‘That was nuts. For the past nine months or so, I don’t know what the hell happened.’ And then, you’re just thrown into motherhood. We don’t have to have that kind of experience. So when you’re coming to Wolomi, our hope is that you find a partner and a companion and that you are joyful. It’s a joyful experience because you have the knowledge to go through the experience boldly and joyfully.”

Credit: How This Registered Nurse Created An App To Empower Black Women During Perinatal Stages (blackenterprise.com)